


The Uncanny Adventures of a Thief and His Dog

by dragoneyes



Series: Pet Therapy Werewolf (aka: The Wuffguru AU) [3]
Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22955179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragoneyes/pseuds/dragoneyes
Summary: There were dog treats in Aoko's school bag.
Relationships: Hakuba Saguru & Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: Pet Therapy Werewolf (aka: The Wuffguru AU) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1486673
Comments: 43
Kudos: 98





	The Uncanny Adventures of a Thief and His Dog

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out way longer than planned. *sweats nervously*

There were dog treats in Aoko's school bag. 

They were wrapped in an obnoxiously bright package with a very generic picture of a Golden Retriever running in a field, and Kaito wondered why his childhood friend had decided to take that thing to school exactly. 

"Hey, Ahoko!" he called, "I get that you like barking and chasing after me, but you're gonna end up sick if you start eating this stuff!" 

"Aoko isn't eating them, Bakaito! What are you talking about?!" she replied without hesitation, storming back at his side to snatch the treats out of his hands, and putting them back in their proper place. "Keiko told Aoko about this nice dog that hangs out sometimes near the park, and Aoko has made friends with him, that's all!" 

Oh? So that was where Aoko had been disappearing to in the last couple of weeks. Kaito had been wondering about that one. "And why didn't I know anything about this?" 

"Because Bakaito was too busy bickering with Hakuba-kun when Keiko told Aoko," his friend replied without hesitation, sticking her tongue out at him, before gathering her things to go back home. 

"Ok, for starters, I don't bicker with Hakuba: he's the one that keeps pestering me," Kaito huffed, picking up his own bag and slinging it over his shoulder. "Secondly, the last time that happened, it was two weeks ago!" 

Hakuba had been on one of his supposed "trips" for about that long, and while the detective teen always claimed they were work-related, Kaito had his suspicions about them being just a convenient excuse to ditch school, due to how frequent they were. 

As much as the teen magician had reason to gripe about the guy, Hakuba _was_ frighteningly intelligent at times - it was half the reason why he was so dangerous to have at heists - and, knowing his self-serving streak, Kaito would not put it past him to skip classes because school sometimes was just _that_ boring to the both of them.

"And you've been ditching Aoko for that long, because you're always busy with something else!" his childhood friend pointed out, cheeks adorably puffed out in disgruntlement while she made her way out of the class. 

Kaito allowed himself a short wince: it was true that he'd kinda taken advantage of Hakuba's absence to set up a few heists, and he'd been distracted by the preparations for those, but he didn't think he'd been _that_ absent all around...

"So, about this dog of yours..." he prompted her, hastening his pace to be at her side once more. 

"Aoko was going to see if he's at the park," the messy-haired girl shrugged, slowing down her pace to let him catch up to her. "Sometimes he's not around for a long time, so Aoko thinks that maybe his owner travels a lot, and they bring him along when they do." 

"Isn't that just a stray?" Kaito frowned, absently waving at their classmates as they both made their way through the school's gate and into the road. 

"He's a collar and a tag," Aoko offered, her lips pursing into thoughtfulness. "There is a drawing on the front - a downward-facing triangle, and a full circle right in its middle - and no address, but one time Aoko saw him passing by with a full grocery bag hanging from his mouth, so he must have been trained by someone at some point..." 

For as much as Kaito liked to tease her, and in spite of the fact that she insisted on acting younger than she was, the boy knew that his friend was smart: it showed in the way she had already formulated a feasible hypothesis, without anyone's prompting on the matter. 

"He's also very polite and well-behaved," she added with a bright grin, that lit up her whole expression and made Kaito's cheeks feel warmer, just a little bit, while she kept narrating her encounters with the object of the discussion. 

Among the things that the teen magician found out about Aoko's dog, there were a few that struck him for unusualness: apparently the animal was never loud, allowed strangers to pat his head without making a fuss, and he helped Aoko to find her keys at one point, when she lost them on her way home. 

Another time he also showed up at her side bringing gifts of strawberry Pocky, and a bottle of melon Ramune. 

By the end of the list, Kaito had to admit that he was getting a bit curious about the animal, because a snack-bearing dog sounded kind of amazing in his book. 

"I guess it's my duty as your best friend to make sure you won't get eaten by a stray dog, so I'll have to come along next time!" he proclaimed after considering his options, a wide grin spreading on his face when Aoko's cheeks puffed out in irritation in return. 

"He's not a stray dog!" 

****** 

The dog would not show himself to Kaito. 

He attempted to bump into him on multiple occasions during that week, but both him and Aoko didn't even get a glimpse of a canine tail. 

At first, she thought that the animal might have simply been taken by his owner on one of those hypothetical trips she mentioned before, but her furry friend appeared again the following day - when Kaito had been busy checking in with Jii-chan about KID's next heist. 

The animal played with Aoko as per his usual - accepting her petting and nuzzling her in return - until it became late, and she had to go make dinner for her dad. 

And yet the dog would not show himself, if Kaito accompanied Aoko after school on her walk home. 

****** 

"Maybe he doesn't like your smell," his best friend was munching on the pack of vanilla beans KitKat that her quadrupedal friend had gifted her with, just the day before. She looked remarkably smug while she offered her hypothesis on the animal's unusual behavior. 

Kaito didn't think he smelled that differently from other people: he showered regularly and no other animal seemed to be avoiding him - in fact, he got along with most of the neighborhood's cats remarkably well - so there was no reason why this particular dog seemed to have something against him. 

****** 

"Aoko has no idea what to tell you," this time, she was sipping from a bottle of some kind of grape-flavored soft drink that she had gotten from her canine Santa Claus at some point during the previous week. She had decided they should eat lunch together that day, and so she had taken over the chair in front of Kaito's desk, after making sure its owner had gone out to meet with some other students from another class. 

"Keiko said she had no trouble approaching him either the last time she went to the park," the girl continued, handing him what was left of her drink, as if to share the bounty that Kaito could not get himself firsthand. He took it with a despondent grunt, and chugged the whole thing down in one long gulp. 

"Aoko thinks he's away again though, because it's been three days since she last saw him," his friend continued, this time pulling out of her pockets a couple of chocolate candies and shoving one into his free hand. 

The teen magician was beginning to feel a bit pitied. 

"Ara, Nakamori-san, are you perhaps talking about that dashing animal with the lovely tawny and creamy fur I've seen you hanging around?" suddenly Akako's sickly sweet tone was right above his shoulder, and Kaito reeled back to the other side of the desk to keep some distance between them. She smiled at him in that way she did - like she was observing a prey she planned to squeeze in her deadly coils - and with an elegant gesture she pulled closer a chair and set herself down next to them. 

"Yeah!" Aoko answered with a smile, delighted that her usually unapproachable classmate had decided to join them. "Kaito wanted to meet him, but he's never around when Kaito is." 

"I fear I've been encountering the same issue that Kuroba-kun has," Akako commented conversationally, pausing just a moment when Aoko pulled a third chocolate out of her pocket. The witch blinked in confusion at the offered candy, studying it as if she were wondering if it were some kind of trap. She then seemed to notice the bright smile on the face of the girl sitting next to her, and she decided to accept the friendly offering for what it was. 

"Although in my case I'm fairly sure the cause is an aversion to my scent," she continued, daintily pushing the small chocolate past her lips, "I'm told I can smell excessively sweet to some specific species of canines." 

"Must be the witchiness coming out of you," Kaito muttered to himself, before raising his voice again. "That still doesn't explain why he's avoiding _me_." 

"Maybe he doesn't like guys," Aoko suggested, before sending a glance just above her childhood friend's head. "How about you, Hakuba-kun? Have you met him yet?" 

When Kaito sharply turned around to stare at the recipient of her query, he found that the half-British boy was lingering about a desk away from them, a subtly startled look resting on his face at being suddenly addressed like that. 

Hakuba had come back two days ago from one of his "trips" to England - the ones Kaito still highly suspected of being just an excuse to miss classes - and the teen magician refused to believe that someone that had been ditching Japan so regularly since he enrolled in the school would have met Aoko's elusive dog friend before he did. 

"Ha...well..." the blonde boy looked uncertain for another moment still, before his expression shifted back to his usual more politely neutral smile. "Dogs are usually intimidated by my height, I fear." 

Which was not an answer, but Kaito decided not to point it out aloud, because it wasn't like he particularly cared about the detective's plight in befriending domesticated canines. 

"Oh, I'm sure it would be fine with this one," Akako intervened again, voice dripping caramel with every word she spoke. "From what I remember, he looked quite sizeable next to Nakamori-san..." 

She was staring at their half-British classmate now, and there was something in her gaze that looked like a sort of silent challenge, but it could not possibly be that, because Kaito had never seen her act in such a way towards a potential slave before. 

"He _is_ pretty big," Aoko agreed, sending the witch a wide smile, "but he's also very friendly and very gentle: Aoko has never even heard him bark or growl before!"

"I don't care if Hakuba does or doesn't meet your dog!" Kaito groaned, attempting to get the whole discussion back on the track it had been, before Akako decided she was bored enough to join them. 

"I still don't get why he's avoiding _me_!" 

Aoko shrugged, popping into her mouth another one of those small chocolates that the teen magician was beginning to suspect to be another gift from the object of their discussion. She didn't mind his glare, and instead turned her attention on the witch sitting next to them, in order to ask her if she wanted to go shopping with her and Keiko next Saturday. 

The unsympathetic traitor that she was. 

"...perhaps..." 

It was a soft, hesitant sound, and when Kaito turned towards it, he found that Hakuba was still awkwardly standing in the same spot. There was again a hint of uncertainty in his gaze, and his usually smooth forehead was now scrunched up into a pensive frown. 

"...perhaps you'll have better luck next time," he finally offered, voice still quiet and not quite sounding as smug as he usually did, before he turned around and stalked his way back to his desk. 

Kaito had no idea if he was supposed to take that as some kind of encouragement or not. 

It was just a dog, after all. 

****** 

"Next time" turned out to be three weeks later. 

Kaito wasn't even trying to actively meet the animal: he was simply accompanying his childhood friend back home because he was invited over for dinner, when he spotted a pair of amber eyes and an equal amount of pointy ears peering at them from behind the corner of a side alley. The dog didn't make any move to approach them, but as soon as Aoko's gaze landed on him, she quickly closed the distance between them. 

"Oh there you are!" she smiled widely, raising a hand as soon as she was within reach to give him a friendly rub over his big head. "Are you back from your trip? Are you going to stay for a while this time?" 

"Ahoko, that's a dog: he can't answer you..." Kaito called out at her, making his way to them more slowly. The animal was keeping himself half-hidden behind his childhood friend, sending him wary glances from behind her small frame and shuffling to hide himself again, whenever the boy was in sight. 

It didn't seem to match with what Aoko had said about her four-legged acquaintance's friendly disposition, and it made Kaito frown in confusion. 

_Maybe there is really something about my smell that's bothering him_ , the magician considered, giving a tentative sniff at his shoulder and finding nothing wrong with it. 

"You've no ground to stand on, Bakaito!" the girl huffed when only a couple of meters separated them, "Aoko knows for a fact that you do the same with your doves!" 

"I do _not_! You've no proof of--is that a _wolf_?!" 

When Kaito was finally able to take a better look at the animal, his eyes instinctively widened at the sight of just how big the thing was: judging by how tiny he made Aoko look, the boy was fairly certain that the dog easily reached his waist in height. His paws were at least as big as his own hands, and they threaded the ground silently, with the kind of carefulness that made the boy instinctively think of a predator stalking its prey. The reddish-and-cream fur covering his body looked as if it had only recently begun to grow its winter coat, which meant that the animal was bound to look even bigger by the time December came around. 

"Of course not, what are you talking about? Aoko told you already that he's a collar, and he's very well-behaved!" the messy-haired girl was rolling her eyes at him, while she absentmindedly kept leaving gentle strokes on the dog's head. The animal didn't seem to notice, as he was busy staring at Kaito with uncertainty clear in his gaze, ears flattened sideways and brows slightly furrowed. 

He might be big, but there didn't seem to be any danger either - as that looked more like shyness than displeasure - so the boy crouched down so that their eyes could meet at the same level. 

"Hey there," he smiled - not grinned, because he wasn't sure how the animal would take to the showing of teeth - and he slowly raised a hand between them to give him the chance to smell his scent properly. "Do I stink that much, that you keep avoiding me, hum?" 

Amber eyes tracked his movements, before shifting back to Kaito's face. 

The uncertainty didn't subside, in fact, the dog shuffled again to get Aoko between the two of them. 

"He probably knows you're up to no good," the girls replied with a smug grin, clearly enjoying the fact that she was being favored like that. "Animals can sense those kinds of things!" 

For some reason that didn't sit well with Kaito at all. 

****** 

"So, does he have a name?" 

This was the third time he met the dog. 

This was the third time the dog kept using Aoko as a shield between them. 

Kaito was starting to question everything he thought to be true about his affinity with animals. 

"Not really? He probably does, but Aoko doesn't know it." 

The dog was watching Kaito again with the kind of attention of someone gauging a potential threat, and the boy was starting to feel a bit miffed that he was being treated in such a way, when he had done nothing to the animal to warrant it. 

"I call him Cookie, since his fur is sorta gold and sorta light brown," the girl continued, offering her hand to the object of the discussion. There were a few treats in her palm, and the dog - curse him and his favoritism - didn't even hesitate before vacuuming them up in that big muzzle of his. 

"That's a dumb name," Kaito huffed back. 

He wasn't jealous of Ahoko. 

He absolutely was not. 

Not even when the dog glanced in his direction and shuffled a bit to hide behind her legs. 

"Your face is dumb!" the girl shot back without hesitation, not minding the animal and his movements. 

"You could at least call him 'Choco', if you're gonna be food-themed," Kaito continued, waving a dismissive hand in the air. 

"That's even dumber! Chocolate isn't even the right brown!" 

"So what?" the boy grinned, knowing that it would just rile her up some more. "Chocolate is clearly superior to cookies, I'm just giving him a compliment by naming him that!" 

"That's because Bakaito has an addiction!" Aoko's cheeks were all puffed out in contempt, it made her look like Yoru-chan - the fattest of his doves - and Kaito almost ceded to the temptation to give them a firm poke. 

"Well, it's not my fault if your taste is shi--" he started, only to pull away with a startled yelp. 

" _Did you just bite my ass?!_ " 

The boy twirled around to find that Choco was staring up at him, watching him with those big amber eyes of his, disapproval clear on his canine face at the way his lady friend was being treated in his presence. His ears were flattened sideways again, but he was neither showing any teeth, nor making any aggressive sound. 

It hadn't been a hard bite - more like a warning nip - but Kaito had not heard the animal move at all, and the sudden contact had made him jump out of the way out of reflex. Usually dogs weren't that sneaky - as far as he knew - so clearly, taking this and its wild wolf-like appearance into account, something must be up with the family tree of this particular one. 

"You shouldn't bite people," Aoko had moved closer to the animal with a frown. 

"Bakaito is an idiot, but he doesn't mean anything by it," she continued, as if expecting Choco do understand her words. The dog regarded her silently at her gentle scolding, before turning his attention back on Kaito, his head tilted to one side in consideration. 

It took a few moments of deliberation, before he seemed to decide on a course of action, and then he stepped closer to the boy than he had dared to so far. The look in his eyes was still a bit uncertain, a hint of suspicion lingering behind, so, instead of showing off his openness to friendship with grand gestures like he usually would, Kaito crouched down to avoid towering over him, and for a second time he offered him a hand to sniff. 

"Hey, not afraid of me anymore?" the magician smiled, still avoiding showing any teeth, not wanting to send the wrong signal. 

With a soft sound that must be some form of agreement, the dog gave a nudge to Kaito's fingers with the tip of his damp nose, and he finally allowed the magician to fully reach out and scratch his neck. His fur was fluffy and soft, silky in the way only a well-groomed and periodically taken-care-of pet could be. 

Kaito considered the gentle back and forth of the tip of Choco's tail to be a win on his part. 

****** 

As it turned out, Choco was a great audience. 

The dog always watched his tricks with the utmost focus, but he would neither interrupt, nor ask for any attention in return: he just sat in front of Kaito and watched with those intelligent amber eyes of his, as the boy made things appear and disappear in his hands. 

For a dog that size, he was really very polite. 

****** 

One time, Kaito attempted to include him into his practice. 

Choco had been watching him, as usual, without making a peep, and Aoko wasn't available to be his interactive audience this time around, so the boy decided he could as well play with him, and he went to rummage in his bag. 

After finding what he was looking for, he crouched down in front of his quadrupedal friend, his hands extended to show a dog treat in one palm and nothing in the other. 

"Guess which one," he said, the corner of his lips pulling up when he saw recognition on the animal's face, soon followed by intense focus: it was kinda cute how serious Choco could be about the silliest things, and how curious he became whenever Kaito attempted a new trick in his presence. 

Humming in quiet contentment, he curled his fingers into loose fists, and he let habit take over his movements: first he let the treat appear into one hand, then again in the other, and finally in none altogether. 

Choco watched the whole procedure in silence, amber eyes tracking his movements and pointy ears perked up in alerted interested, but, when Kaito finally offered him his closed hands to pick from, the dog let out an uncertain whine. 

"Come on, chose one," the boy gently prompted with an amused grin, lightly shaking his fists to catch the animal's attention. It took still a few moments of careful consideration on Choco's part, before he slowly raised one big paw to lightly tap Kaito's left hand. 

"Nope, wrong one," the magician chuckled at the confusion on his muzzle when he showed him his empty palm. 

"Not this one either," the boy's smirk grew wider when the dog attempted to pick his other hand and again he came out with no results. 

"Hum, I wonder where that treat went! Maybe we should try again with another one!" Kaito offered with a laugh that only grew louder when Choco _glared_ at him, as if sensing he was being made fun of.

_Cute._

This time, when Kaito attempted the trick again, the dog stood at attention - his whole posture straight and his gaze shining with purpose - instead of keeping the relaxed sitting stance he had been sporting so far. His yellow-orange eyes watched with uncanny focus as the new treat passed from one hand to the other, his muzzle tilting this and that way to follow the boy's movements. 

When finally the boy offered him his fists again, Choco paused, staring at them in silence for a few moments, before his eyes slowly trailed up to peer at Kaito's face instead. There was something in the animal's expression that made him look much more intelligent than a dog had any right to be. Perhaps it was simply the staring, perhaps it was the refusal to make even a sound, but it still made the magician feel as if even his most hidden thoughts were being scrutinized. 

It took a few more seconds before Choco seemed to finally decide on a course of action and this time, instead of choosing one fist over the other, he simply disregarded both of them, wiggling his way between the boy's arms until he could reach his jacket instead. 

When the dog began pawing at his pocket with expectation, demanding the treat hidden within it in return for his correct guess, Kaito couldn't help but grin in delight. 

"Smart dog!" 

With a loud laughter he handed over the promised goods to his demanding friend. 

Choco's long tail was still swinging back and forth at the praise, even after the treats were siphoned out of existence, and they were all long gone. 

****** 

"Aoko doesn't get it," the dark-haired girl at Kaito's side started, making the boy send her a questioning glance in return. They were both sitting on one of the park's benches, having decided to hang out there after Choco turned up in front of their school after classes ended. This was the first time the dog had ever showed his pointy muzzle without Kaito needing to go search for him beforehand, and so the latter had decided to take it as a sign that they should spend a few hours together. 

After some petting - Choco's fur was a pleasure to run one's fingers through, always so fluffy and soft - the three of them had somehow found their way to the nearest park, and the teens were now busy watching the dog stalking behind bushes and attempting to pounce on anything that moved. 

Mostly birds. 

He wasn't harming any of them, as far as Kaito could tell, so the boy decided to allow the animal to let loose his hunting instincts for now, and he refrained to make any move to stop him. 

"About what?" he asked instead to the girl sitting next to him, and she shrugged, her forehead creasing into a thoughtful frown. 

"Aoko doesn't get why Bakaito gets along with Cookie, but not with Hakuba-kun." 

Sometimes Kaito wondered what exactly went on his best friend's head. 

Kaito loved Aoko, he loved her dearly. 

He loved her like a sister. 

He loved her like his best friend. 

(He loved her like something more.) 

But Kaito sometimes had no idea just what was going on through her mind, that she would make such laughable claims with such a straight face. 

"What?" 

Because, what else could he reply to that leap? 

Aoko's frown deepened, and she stared back at him like he was being purposely obtuse. It would have been mildly insulting, if not for the fact that it was fairly common occurrence when she went through those kinds of reasoning jumps. 

"Cookie and Hakuba-kun," she reiterated with an impatient huff. "Aoko doesn't get why you like Cookie, but you don't like Hakuba-kun." 

Well, Choco wasn't on his ass for moonlighting - ha! - as a phantom thief, for starters. 

Not to mention... 

"Hakuba is a dick, Choco is adorable," Kaito shrugged back, trying very, _very_ hard to stop his brain from conjuring any image of himself treating the half-British detective the same way he treated the friendly dog - scratches and hugs included.

For a long moment the girl at his side didn't reply, her lips pursing and her eyes squinting in a way that made her look a bit like a perplexed Shiba Inu puppy. Her cheeks even puffed out ever so slightly and her head tilted to the side, before she finally gave her response. 

"Aoko thinks that Cookie and Hakuba-kun's personalities really aren't that different." 

As Kaito was saying: his childhood friend's mental leaps sometimes were very baffling indeed. 

****** 

Kaito spun around at the sound of a gun being cocked, white cape flapping in the wind that had been blowing since he had first set foot on the roof of the building. 

"Snake, how nice to see you!" he greeted, KID grin firmly set on his face while he angled his body to make it as small of a target as possible. "It's been a while: I was beginning to worry you might have decided to change lifestyle to something less murderous!" 

He wasn't surprised to see him here - not with every move that he made reminding him of the encounter he had with the guy's underlings just a few floors ago - but he couldn't help the first instinctive twinge of apprehension that always hit him at the knowledge that even one wrong move could land him dead. 

"Hand over the jewel, KID, and maybe I'll let you live," the man demanded, free hand extended to make his claim. 

"Yes, yes," Kaito restrained himself from rolling his eyes - that would have been a dumb move, no matter how any times he had faced Snake so far. 

"If I remember it right, the last time you said that, you then proceeded to shoot me, right after I complied with your demand," the boy continued, making his tone amused and careless, while he waved a dismissive hand between them. "Not that it seems to have done much good for you, hum?" 

The gesture was large and slow enough to catch the man's attention, meant to keep his focus away from the way Kaito was inching towards his card gun as they talked. 

Peripherally, the teen magician was glad that he had sent the Task Force on a merry chase after one of his dummies, as he was glad that there were no nosy half-British detectives around to risk bumping into their stand-off and get themselves shot for their trouble. 

Kaito really didn't need the help in any case. 

"Fine by me," Snake snorted, finger twitching against the trigger and mouth bending into a vicious grin. "Seeing you dead suits me well, I'm glad you decided to resist." 

Kaito tensed, ready to jump to the side. There was a certain song and dance to their interactions - one that the other man didn't seem to have caught on yet - and the boy knew the timing needed to avoid being hit, and to gain himself enough precious seconds to answer with a card bullet of his own. 

He was ready to follow the usual set of steps to get himself to safety and give Snake enough of an incentive to retreat for the night, when he heard the growl. 

It was a deep, loud sound that made the hair at the back of his neck stand up at attention. 

It came from the roof's only entrance, and both the thief and the killer in front of him couldn't help but send a wary glance towards the darkness keeping the source of the noise hidden from sight. 

"What the fu--" was all that Snake managed to say, before a fury of tawny fur and gleaming white fangs sprung out of the shadows, like an _inugami_ sicked on a victim by its deranged master.

A scream of pain tore out from his throat when twin powerful rows of sharp teeth clenched on his closest arm, and the dark-haired boy could only stare in disbelief, because that was Choco attempting to tear Snake's limb off, in a show of wild viciousness that he had never seen from the mild-mannered dog before. 

He had no idea why his canine friend was there. He could only guess that he had somehow snuck into the building, maybe following Kaito's scent around until he had finally stumbled his way up the staircase that lead to the roof. 

For a short moment, he felt an unfamiliar sense of elation at the feeling of certainty that came with the undisputable proof of a dear friend having his back, but it soon died down, his blood freezing in his veins, when he saw Snake raise his gun with his other hand, aiming at his friend's chest. 

"You fucking mutt!" 

With instinct born out of practice and necessity alike, Kaito went for his weapon, his heartbeat thundering in his rib cage, and sudden surge of adrenaline sending all of his senses into overdrive. 

A gunshot rang into the air, just right as his card hit the barrel of Snake's weapon, and Choco yelped in pain. 

He crumbled to the ground, blood already seeping out of the wound he had received, and painting his fur from its tawny hue into a distressingly dark red. 

Kaito shot again and Snake's gun went flying into the air, well out of reach and where it could do no more damage. The older man's face twisted into a snarl of frustration and hatred alike, but his arm was bleeding where Choco had bitten down, and cold sweat was beginning to shine on his face. 

Once Snake retreated with a last promise that he would have KID's head next time, Kaito wasted no time in running to his fallen friend in order to check his wounds. 

Choco was laying on the ground, gaze dazed and soft yips leaving his throat when he felt the boy approach him. Giving a reassuring brush to the animal's head, Kaito looked him over to ascertain the damage: the right front leg was beginning to drench in the blood oozing out of what looked like a graze to his shoulder, but overall the animal's confusion seemed to be caused by the surprise attack, rather than blood loss. 

With quick hands and the expertise that came with having to take care of one's own injuries in more than one occasion - and a quick thanks to the gods that his friend hadn't been hit in any vital organ - Kaito set himself to work: as best he could, he cleaned and bandaged the wound, hoping that the disinfectant he carried with himself would not make things worse when applied to a dog. 

Tired amber eyes watched him during the whole process, but the animal didn't move under his ministrations, not even when Kaito gave a harder tug at the bandages to help with the bleeding. 

"It's ok, it's ok, I'm gonna make sure you're alright," the teen magician quietly promised anyways, feeling comfort in the knowledge that there was no immediate danger to his friend's life. The dog answered by leaning closer to press the side of his warm head against Kaito's thigh, in a show of closeness that made the latter let out a slow, shaky sigh. 

Going back to leaving soothing strokes to Choco's head with one hand, the boy rummaged in his jacket's inner pocket for his phone with the other. 

"Jii-chan?" he called, his voice sounding fried even to himself as he spoke in the receiver. "I need your help." 

****** 

The safe house Kaito had brought Choco to the night before, after the heist, was a small apartment on the second floor of a mostly-empty building. It belonged to an old friend of Jii-chan's, who had let them use it without much of a fuss or inquire about their needs in more than one occasion in the past. 

When he entered the room in which his canine friend had been resting, he found him still laying on the bed where he had left him, head turned towards the window and muzzle pointed upwards. The sun was setting, painting the view with its warm colors, but he seemed more interested in the pale shape of the moon already starting to take form in the darker part of the sky. 

Bathed in the evening light, his fur had taken a crimson hue, and, if Kaito hadn't known that it was indeed Choco waiting for him, he would have thought some kind of supernatural creature had managed to snuck in when he hadn't been looking. 

"Hey there," he greeted to catch his attention, moving closer when the dog turned to regard him with a quiet glance of acknowledgment, and giving him a few gentle pats on the head. The dog looked pleased by the gesture of affection and returned it with a gentle lick to the palm of Kaito's hand. 

"How are you doing today?" he chattered while he gave a few more soothing strokes to the animal's back, smoothing out his thick and soft fur for him. "You seem perky. How about we check your wound then, hum?" 

The process of changing Choco's bandages was surprisingly uneventful. 

Kaito had noticed even the previous night, that the animal seemed to instinctively recognize he was just trying to help out, even when he had accidentally brushed the wound, or he had been forced to wrap it more tightly than it was probably comfortable, in order to keep it from bleeding too much. 

He wondered with a twinge of concern, if his quadrupedal friend was used to getting hurt, and he wondered, not for the first time, where his owner was and what he was doing, that he left the dog wander about on his own so often. 

If Kaito had not been around to take care of his friend's injury and bring him to safety, would someone else have? 

Would they even have gotten to the dog before the wound was infected or worse? 

Would the bleeding have stopped on its own? 

Kaito pushed that thought away, and focused on gently wrapping Chocho's injured limb in fresh cloth. 

"I'm sorry you got hurt because of me..." he murmured in a quiet and somber apology once finished, kneeling next to the bed, his stomach churning with guilt every time his gaze landed on his friend's shoulder. While bandaging it, it had looked like a graze - and to be fair, it _had_ stopped bleeding relatively easily - but the knowledge that the bullet would have hit something far more vital if Kaito had not intervened, made his heart race and his hands tremble.

After his father, he didn't want to lose anyone else. 

This was his fight, there was no reason for those dear to him to get involved and risk their lives. 

"You shouldn't have done that," he firmly stated, willing the dog to understand his words, even if he was conscious of the fact that it was a futile effort on his part, "I could have handled it on my own." 

At first, Choco didn't react to his frustration. He remained silent and still, intelligent amber eyes peering back at him with an intensity that Kaito wasn't sure he had ever seen on them before: there was something in his gaze that made the teen feel scrutinized somehow. 

Then suddenly, in a show of surprising agility, considering his injured state, his body twisted to one side, freeing twin paws from the constricted position against the mattress, and his hinds legs shot out to send Kaito flying to the ground. 

As he landed in a graceless heap of limbs with his back on the floor, his breath was yanked out of him and stars danced in front of his eyes, his chest screaming in pain where it had been sporting deep bruises since the heist the night before. 

"Fuck!" he hissed, struggling to pull himself back up. "What was that fo--?" 

A strong paw landed on his sternum, shoving him back flat against the ground, and he snapped his mouth shut when his gaze was met by two rows of gleaming fangs, and the air resonated with the loud rumble of a warning growl. 

Above him, having managed to close the distance between them in spite of his injured limb, Choco was staring him down with blazing amber eyes and the fury of an offended demigod. His fur was puffed out, his ears flattened back, and there was no sign of the familiar quiet friendliness in the way he was keeping Kaito pinned to the ground. 

It was with the kind of primal fear that came with being unexpectedly faced with a wild predator during an otherwise unassuming walk through a well-used mountain path, that the boy felt his skin become sweaty and clammy with fright. 

Suddenly he was very aware of how big the dog was: he had always thought so, but his initial shy disposition, and his later more curious and amiable nature had made him forget about it somehow. 

"...Choco...?" he hesitantly called the animal's name, voice coming out more wavery than he meant it to, only to hold his breath when a big nose pressed against his chest, snuffling and rubbing as if searching for the best place to bite down through the thin fabric of Kaito's shirt. 

He wasn't sure how much time passed like this, the teen magician being keenly aware of each second that went by with that fanged maw so close to his body, but he finally allowed himself a slow sigh of relief when the dog pulled back enough to let his lips fall back over his teeth, the fur along his spine smoothing out, as if satisfied by his compliance. 

"...hum...hi?" the boy hesitantly offered when Choco kept piercing him with an unimpressed look, yellow-orange eyes roaming over his body like he was taking note of his distressed state. 

With a snort of annoyance he slowly retreated his paw, allowing Kaito just enough time to fully relax under him, before the dog shuffled his weight around and suddenly his pointy and damp nose was back to its imperious inquire, finding its way under his shirt. 

"Wait! Wait! What are you--" the teen magician began to protest, only to hiss in pain, teeth clenching down when Choco's questing muzzle pressed without mercy on his bruised ribcage, where a stray bullet from one of Snake's minions had hit the Kevlar under his clothes and knocked the air of him the night before. 

It was right between the fifth and sixth rib on the left side of his chest. 

The bulled would have punctured a lung if it had gone through. 

Kaito slumped back against the floor, staring up at the ceiling while something inside his chest gave an embarrassing little squeeze and his eyes welled up with something completely different from the stinging pain of his bruises. 

"Hey, Choco?" he called, voice soft and one hand reaching for the hem of his shirt to pull it over the other's head. "Did I worry you?" 

The dog spared him a glance when their eyes could meet again, but the licks at his ribs didn't stop. He was being more gentle now, warm and careful, as if he had decided he preferred to soothe his pain rather than continuing to make his point heard. 

"You softie, I'm fine," Kaito hummed, threading his fingers through the thick fur of his friend's neck. 

"I'm used to it, anywa--" he instinctively tried to reassure the animal, only to find himself with a face full of dog muzzle, a low rumble of disapproval filling the air between them once again, the glint of exposed fangs as a clear warning to cease that line of thought, _or else_. 

"Fine! Fine! I'll be more careful!" Kaito conceded with an exasperated groan, wondering exactly when it had happened that Choco had decided to self-appoint himself as his guardian. 

Again his chest gave a little squeeze, but he decided to pointedly ignore it in favor of grumbling his displeasure aloud. "You're very bossy, you know?" 

The answer of his animal friend was to make himself more comfortable on top of Kaito, even as he made sure not to press on the latter's bruised ribs. The teen replied by wrapping an arm around the dog's big body in order to pull him closer and sink his face in the creamy fur of his neck. Choco's right paw - on the same side of his injured shoulder - was resting next to Kaito's neck, and he reached out to give it a gentle squeeze, slender fingers curling to tickle the toe beans underneath. 

With a sound that the teen decided to interpret as begrudging mollification, the dog shifted his weight around so that he could tuck his muzzle under his chin, warm tongue sneaking out to bestow licks of affection when his initiative was met with a few well-placed scratches at the base of one big ear. 

If it meant keeping his stubborn canine guardian safe, Kaito supposed he could be more careful at heists from now on. 

****** 

Kaito had a problem. 

It wasn't anything _dangerous_ , or even particularly _significant_. 

It was more like a restless itch at the back of his consciousness, a certainty that he was missing something, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't quite pinpoint what, specifically, was bothering him. 

It had started soon after he had deemed Choco recovered enough to be allowed to go back to his owner on his own, and it hadn't left him ever since. 

He suspected it to have been caused by the realization he had, while watching his canine friend's disappear in the distance, that he knew very little about him: as amiable as the dog was, and as much as he seemed to enjoy Kaito's company, the animal was always alone when the boy bumped into him. It made him nervous because there was no certainty that anyone was taking care of him properly now that the teen magician wasn't around to keep an eye on him. 

With a frustrated groan he let himself flop on the smooth surface of his desk, already regretting not passing himself off as sick that morning instead of going to class. 

"Good morning, Kuroba-kun," his regret only grew deeper when he heard the familiar voice of his most troublesome classmate. 

Right, Hakuba was supposed to be back from his latest trip, wherever the hell he had supposedly disappeared to this time around... 

Oh, joy. 

"Yeah, yeah, 'morning to you too," he replied with a wave of his hand in the detective's general direction, refusing to pull himself up from the far-more-enticing surface of his desk. He closed his eyes, hoping that the blonde teen would assume he wanted to sleep through classes and leave him alone. 

"Hum...I--" 

No such luck, apparently. 

"What?" Kaito curtly prompted him, deciding that the quicker that whole back-and-forth was done with, the better for him. He still was careful not to turn his head in the detective's direction, not wanting to accidentally give him any additional starting point for an actual discussion. 

"...well...I...merely wanted to inquire about how you were doing...?" 

Seriously, what was up with Hakuba today? Normally the blonde teen would have already sniped at him a few sarcastic remarks, or attempted to needle him about his connections with KID for umpteenth time. 

What was all this sudden hesitation? 

It was making Kaito feel even more restless and defensive than usual. 

"I'm fine, you can move along now. I'm kinda in the middle of something here," he huffed, making a careless gesture at the desk he was currently using as a makeshift pillow. 

For several instants there was no reply, and the teen magician could feel the intensity of Hakuba's stare digging at the back of his head. He was about to point out that he was trying get some sleep, and to suggest the other should go bother someone else, when his annoyance was interrupted by a soft, weary chuckle. 

"...I suppose it was silly to expect a different reaction, given the precedents..." 

Opening one of his eyes of a tiny fraction, Kaito watched as the half-British detective made his way through the classroom, sparing a polite greeting to Aoko and Keiko, before silently sitting at his desk and focusing his attention on the day's schoolwork. 

What was that about? 

****** 

"Woah, Hakuba-kun! Is that scar new?" 

"Oh...hum...yes?" 

Kaito carefully avoided turning around, but he could tell from Hakuba's uncertain tone that he was startled by the sudden inquiry. They were all changing for gym class, and the dark-haired teen was focusing on not letting anyone see the signs of his own nightly escapades, so he kept his first instinctive reaction to turn around in check, and instead strained his ear to further listen to the debacle. 

This wasn't the first time that Yoshida addressed that topic: the guy had a tendency to crowd Hakuba about his detective work whenever he got the chance, sometimes even interrupting what the half-British boy was doing to dig for more information about this or that criminal-related event that had been broadcasted on the news the day before. 

He always sounded to Kaito like Aya-chan from the classroom next door, when she came over at lunch break to request that the blonde detective spoke to her in proper English, only to burst into giggles when her desire was satisfied, and to run away back to the other room. 

Hakuba was always perfectly pleasant about it, indulging her with the kind of polite smiles Kaito was used to see on the face of retail employees when confronted with a particularly troublesome customer. 

"How did that one happen?" 

"I...well..." Hakuba started, still sounding not completely sure how to reply to Yoshida's probing. This whole discussion was beginning to sound painfully awkward. "...as usual, I cannot really divulge the details..." 

"Come on, man! Give me something! I'm not asking for a whole police report or anything like that!" their classmate needled for further information, evidently having some trouble realizing that line of inquiry was making the detective a bit restless. On the other hand, judging by the excessive cheerfulness and camaraderie in his voice, maybe he just didn't care, as long as his curiosity was fulfilled. 

Kaito subtly tilted his head to send them a glance now that most of the marks on his skin were hidden by his gym clothes: Hakuba had already changed as well, his body completely covered and the cause of that whole discussion now hidden from view, but the dark-haired boy didn't give it mind, deciding instead to focus on the almost aggressively polite expression plastered on his face. 

For an instant, he saw the detective's jaw tense as if he had just suppressed a sigh. 

"Suffices to say that I had an encounter with a particularly trigger-happy individual a few weeks ago..." 

"Cool!" 

_Cool_ , Yoshida said. 

Getting shot at was "cool". 

Kaito remembered staring down the length of a muzzle, nerves abuzz with fear and adrenaline alike, and he wondered what was wrong with people their age sometimes. 

****** 

Kaito was not nosy. 

Detectives were nosy. 

He was not a detective, and therefore he could not be nosy, no matter how much Aoko claimed otherwise. 

He was just curious - that was all! - and he wanted to make sure that Choco was being properly taken care of by his owner. It was just plain _weird_ that he was left to fend for himself so often, or that he vanished for weeks and weeks, before popping back up again like nothing had happened: clearly something must be up!

This was what Kaito told himself when his canine friend showed up for the first time after that whole debacle with Snake and the gun wound he earned from it, and the boy finally decided it was time to tail his furry acquaintance in order to find out more about him. 

After passing a few hours playing with the dog, he had pretended to part ways, only to retrace his steps once out of Choco's sight and follow after him when he began to move. There was something novel about having to stalk an animal instead of a human for once: Kaito had made sure to keep himself downwind to avoid his scent from being detected, but, after a few instances in which he saw his friend pause to look around, ears perked and twitching in every direction, it became soon clear to him that the dog's hearing was something to be wary of as well. 

It helped that Kaito had quite extensive knowledge on how to keep himself hidden from view by now - the unexpected skills that one had to learn when part-timing as a phantom thief... - and in the end Choco didn't seem to catch on his presence, not even as he strolled past the gate of what looked like a very impressive western-style mansion. 

Making sure to find a blind spot in the cameras' fields of vision, the boy perched himself on one of the unusually high walls and watched as his canine friend sprinted about, chasing imaginary preys as he spent the excessive energy that he seemed to still keep in storage, even after hanging out with Kaito. 

While the villa was markedly bigger than an average person could afford, the garden still seemed massive in comparison: the front was relatively normal for a house of that size, but it looked like the back extended on and on for quite a while, so far so, that the boy couldn't properly make out the end of it. 

Choco certainly appeared to have enough space to play to his heart's content at the very least, but the lack of human movements at his arrival made Kaito wonder where exactly his owner was at the moment. 

Again, the teen magician was not nosy - because he, of course, was not a detective - but the fact that his furry friend hadn't received even a welcome back upon his arrival, rubbed him the wrong way. 

Maybe his owner hadn't realized that their pet came back? Choco _could_ be weirdly silent for a dog at times...

He was pretty quiet _now_ , after all, as he busily gnawed at a thick tree branch that appeared to have been left there just for that purpose. He didn't look bothered by the lack of people to interact with either, and Kaito wondered if this was normal for him and that was why he always wandered about on his own. 

"Is everything alright, dear?" a female voice called unexpectedly from the street behind him, and, with a sound - that was most definitely _not_ a squeak - the boy sharply turned around to see who had spoken.

Normally Kaito was pretty good at climbing walls and staying perched on them for an extended period of time, so he blamed the fact that Choco's wagging tail clearly possessed some kind of hypnotic qualities, if his foot slipped, and he soon found himself gracelessly face-planting at the newcomer's feet. 

"Oh dear, are you alright?" 

Rubbing his aching nose - at least it wasn't bleeding, his phantom thief pride was hurting more, to be honest - the teen magician managed a mumbled reply that he was fine, while he got back on his feet, and turned his back halfway to the woman, pulling his cap further down on his face to keep it hidden from view: he _had_ been spying in a private property, after all, and he really didn't need anyone to recognize him if he decided to check on Choco again in the future.

"I'm fine," he was quick to reassure, resisting the first instinctive urge to peer at the person talking to him: he didn't manage to take a proper look at her face, but judging by her voice, she must be around Jii-chan's age - maybe a bit younger. "I'm just gonna go and be out of your way..." 

"Nonsense," she was quick to interrupt him, and Kaito had the distinct impression she would have scoffed, if she were someone less polite. The tone of her voice sounded familiar, but the teen couldn't quite remember where he'd heard it before. 

"Your face and hands are all scraped up, let's just go inside to take care of them." 

Oh, great, she also lived in the house. 

Even more of a reason for a quick retreat. 

"There is no need for that," the boy tried again, eyeing the empty street and wondering if he should just make a run for it. "They're just scratches, I don't want to waste your time..." 

"It would only take a moment." 

"It's fine, I'm kinda in a hurry, and I really gotta go no--" 

"After patching you up, I'll make you some tea, and there are plenty of chocolate cookies in the house to go with it..." 

Kaito paused. 

Well, now that he thought about it more thoroughly, he realized that she didn't sound angry about what she'd caught him doing. 

In fact, so far she'd sounded concerned and helpful. 

It would be really rather rude to just run away and ditch such a nice lady. 

There also was really no reason to waste perfectly good chocolate cookies. 

"...I suppose I can stay for a while, if it's for your peace of mind." 

Kaito did not have an addiction. 

No matter how much Aoko insisted he did. 

"Marvelous!" she didn't even attempt to touch him, as they made their way through the garden, and yet he still felt like he was being herded inside the house somehow. 

****** 

What had Kaito just gotten himself into? 

This was how people got kidnapped and their pieces were found months later in the middle of the woods. 

He still hadn't dared to take a proper look at the woman's face, too worried that she might do likewise with his own. Objectively, he knew that he was beginning to sound paranoid even in his own head, considering that she had provided him with a pretty well-stocked first aid kit, and she was now in the process of making him tea, but some habits were hard to defy, especially when they tended to keep him out of jail. 

Absentmindedly he reached for the bowl of cookies resting on the table he was sitting at, and he brought it to his mouth to take a big bite out of it. 

Chocolate, as promised. 

It was also damn good chocolate. 

He shoved the rest of the cookie in his mouth and took another one. 

"How are you feeling, dear?" the woman asked while she busied herself with the kettle and teacups. 

"I'm fine," Kaito shrugged, eyeing the way she seemed to be searching for additional pastries to offer him which would better match the tea. 

"That's good to hear, Kuroba-kun." 

Kaito paused, and he lowered his gaze to the yet untouched cookie still resting in his hand, his mind already providing the headlines for next week's newspaper. 

_"Missing brilliant teen magician found dead in the woods._

_The authorities still wonder how fucking dumb he had to be, to accept cookies from a suspiciously serene old lady without seeing the obvious trap he was about to be led into."_

With a mental groan, he shoved the potential cause for his future demise in his mouth in one big bite: he'd already eaten two anyways, and if he was already drugged, he might as well eat as many of those delicious cookies as he was able to, before he would inevitably pass out and be dragged in the basement to never see the light of the day again. 

"Ma'am?" he carefully started after licking his lips clean of any leftover crumb. "How do you know my name?" 

"Oh," the woman paused, her gray-haired head lightly tilting to the side as if she were surprised that she was being asked that question at all. "Bocchama is always talking about you and how skillful at magic you are, dear. You really are very easy to recognize, that's all." 

_Bocchama._

Slowly he let his gaze trail up and this time the old lady was turned enough in his direction that he could see her face. He eyed the familiar shape of her nose and the round glasses resting on it with the kind of detached horror with which one witnessed a car crush they could do nothing about. 

_He was in Hakuba's house._

Kaito grabbed another cookie from the bowl and shoved it into his mouth: if he had to deal with the fact that he had been spotted doing what could be easily labeled as _snooping_ into the garden of his most troublesome classmate's house, he would do it on a full stomach.

At least now there was no need to worry about them having been drugged beforehand. 

Licking his lips of any crumbs, enjoying the sensation of the leftover chocolate shards still melting on his tongue, a new realization slowly weaseled its way into his mind: if this was Hakuba's house, and Choco was outside, playing in the garden like it belonged to him, didn't this mean that Choco was _Hakuba's dog_? 

Feeling his forehead drawing into a confused frown, he pursed his lips, and he wondered how the dog turned out so friendly, when his master was such a constant nightmare of snark and disdain. 

Then again, the teen magician knew for a fact that the half-British detective passed a lot of his time abroad on some trip of another, so maybe it wasn't so weird that their personalities would end up being so different: Choco might be Hakuba's dog in name only, after all. 

With a frown on his face and the feeling of annoyance needling at the back of his head, Kaito pushed his chair back, legs scraping against the floor, and raised back on his feet. 

"I really gotta go now," he offers the woman who had just finished pouring a cup of tea, grabbing a few more baked goods from the bowl in front of him as he continued, "I'm sorry for taking your time. The cookies were delicious though!" 

Kaito would normally feel at least a little guilty about making her waste perfectly good tea, but the sudden irritated need to get out of there seemed to have overridden any lingering hesitation he still had. She opened her mouth in what the boy assumed would be a further attempting at bribing him with more sugary food, but he didn't give her time to speak even a word, making instead a quick escape from the house. 

He stopped only when he was in front of the main gate, his head turning downwards when he heard the familiar soft _pat pat pat_ of a set of big paws moving closer: Choco was peering up at him with curiosity, apparently having only realized now that the teen was around. His gaze was hopeful, his big eyes widened by eagerness, like he was silently asking his two-legged friend if he would stay a bit to play with him.

Kaito wondered if Choco ever felt lonely, and that was why he always wandered the streets on his own, searching for someone to interact with. Crouching down to the dog's level, he reached out to scratch at the sensitive underside of his muzzle, earning a soft whine of approval in return. 

"Hey, would you like me to steal you from your master?" the boy hummed, an affectionate smile tugging the corners of his lips when the animal tilted his head in curiosity at his question. 

"Hakuba is an asshole anyways, I bet he doesn't even know how to keep you company properly..." he continued without restraint, feeling some kind of liberating elation at being able to complain without Aoko being there to scold him for it, "...in fact, it would do him good to be more like you: it would make it a lot easier to deal with him." 

Choco peered back at him, amber eyes filled with some kind of emotion the teen was not sure how to read. 

He didn't let out even a sound in answer to Kaito's plight. 

  


**EPILOGUE**

  


There had always been something calming about looking up at a clear starry night and seeing the familiar ivory curve of the moon peering back at him. 

He had taken the habit when he was still a child - it was a reminder to keep track of his transformation so that it wouldn't catch him unaware at the worst of moments - and it had never left him ever since. 

Saguru didn't feel calm now. 

Not when he was so keenly aware of the mess he had gotten himself into. 

Not when he knew it could have all been avoided, if he hadn't been so stubborn in approaching the situation like a normal human being would - if he hadn't been so stubborn in craving things that were simply out of reach for someone with a body like his. 

When he was little, his grandmother sometimes talked about Great-Grandma Alice, and what it was like for her to be the daughter of someone with his same genetic condition. She told him about how Great-Grandma Alice never quite looked like she was comfortable around people: her eyes were too smart, her tongue too sharp, and the submission that was expected from a woman of her time, was never to be found. She only seemed content when she could go out in the woods on her own, coming back days later with a content smile on her face, and renewed gentleness for the only offspring she had. 

Saguru was an idiot. 

Somehow, somewhere along the way, he had forgotten that he was not good at being a human. People like him, people who shared his same predicament, were wolves first and foremost: the animal instincts were always much stronger, ever since early childhood, and they never quite went away, even after spending years in a completely human environment. 

In hindsight, he was at fault for losing sight of that knowledge he had gained through stories about Great-Grandma and through his own experiences in life: he was a good wolf, he was not a good human. 

Saguru's personality was "mischievous", and "charming", and "fun" when he was a wolf, but he became "grating", and "mean", and "conceited" when he stood on two legs instead of four. 

If he was a wolf, and he stole a friend's possession because he wanted an excuse to be chased around, he was "playful". If he did the same thing when he was human, he was "childish". 

If he was a wolf, and he asked for pats on the head, he was "attached". If he did the same thing when he was human, he was "clingy". 

If he was a wolf, and he barked in excitement, he was "lively". If he shouted in delight when he was human, he was "annoying". 

If he was a wolf, and he sniffed at someone from up close to get more information about them, he was "friendly". If he inquired about someone's private life when he was human, he was "nosy". 

He had known from the beginning that this was simply how things were, that it just came with being the way he was. 

He was a good wolf. 

He was not a good human. 

His thoughts did not change with his body, and so he didn't completely fit in human society: he was too straightforward, he was too bossy, he was too curious, he wasn't polite enough, he wasn't nice enough. To make himself acceptable he had to consciously make an effort at all times, to remind himself what was good as a wolf, and what was bad as a human. 

He rationally knew all this, and yet it still hurt. 

Some part of him, a frustrating and instinctive part of him that never quieted down - that never realized it was not supposed to speak up when Saguru was not walking on all-fours - kept deluding itself into thinking that maybe, if he was good enough, if he tried hard enough - if he faked being a normal human convincingly enough - he could make people want to be part of his pack, no matter what shape his body took. 

Hattori-kun, whose face always lit up into a wide grin when he saw him, and who liked to ruffle his fur and play-fight with him on sunny days, rolling on the ground in a stake-less attempt to best on another, while the air was filled with the smell of freshly mowed grass. 

(Hattori-kun, who glare at him like the only reason he wasn't being punched on the nose was because the other had yet to find a convenient reason to excuse it to his fairness-oriented mind.) 

Kudo-kun, who laughed bright and delighted when Saguru nuzzled his face with his damp nose, looking in every possible way happy and thrilled by being on the receiving end of such affections, and looking more like the child whose visage he wore, instead of the more cynical teenager underneath it. 

(Kudo-kun, who always treated him not with contempt, but with the kind of polite coldness that was reserved to colleagues at one's workplace, all carefully-crafted walls made of barbed wire and sharp blades, to cut down any kind of emotional attachment before it could even be born.) 

Kuroba-kun, who was always so keen on sneaking him treats when no-one was looking, and to call him "smart" and "nice" and "cute" with a soft affectionate smile on his face, while he let his fingers gently brush the top of his head. 

(Kuroba-kun, who took a look at him, knew he had been noticed back, and promptly changed direction in order to avoid even having to exchange greetings with him.) 

Saguru thought of them as friends - he thought of them as pack - but the simple truth of the matter was that, as much as he would like that particular illusion to be true, _he_ wasn't that for them at all.

"Shiro" was. 

"Ace" was. 

"Choco" was. 

"Saguru" was not. 

Saguru thought about Great-Grandma Alice and how wistful she had always looked in the few portraits hidden away in the attic of the old countryside house, like there was something missing, like there was always something that didn't quite feel right. 

No matter if her family was around her. 

No matter if her daughter played at her feet and asked for attention. 

No matter if her husband had bought that house to let her have all the free space she needed to run to her heart's content during her wolf months. 

It was always the same thing for those like them, the same underlying problem that Saguru also shared. 

He was a good wolf. 

He was not a good human. 

Sometimes Saguru wished he could be free from his body's restrictions, and to spend all of his time as a wolf. 

**Author's Note:**

> Next up is the last part of the series, as far as main story goes.  
> I might write an omake fic as well, but I'm still debating that one.


End file.
